[Startup Interview] Iris Skrami, Co-Founder, Renoon, Netherlands

[Startup Interview] Iris Skrami, Co-Founder, Renoon, Netherlands

Published: 21-05-2020 17:44:00 | By: Bob Koigi | hits: 9953 | Tags:

Renoon is a Dutch fashiontech startup that connects customers with innovation and the new ways to consume fashion. Positioning itself as the Skyscanner of fashion, Renoon is the first platform that utilizes technology to screen items for their sustainability characteristics. Iris Skrami one of the co-founders elaborates.

Introduce your company

Renoon is a technology platform that empowers users to find sustainable fashion options through data, algorithms and by partnering with brands, online retailers, second-hand and rent platforms. We are the Skyscanner of fashion. We are based in Amsterdam Netherlands.

Who are the founders and what are their professional backgrounds?

Renoon was started by Iris Krami, Nicolò Tresoldi and Gabriele Trapani. The team is dynamic and passionate about sustainability.

Iris Skrami brings the experience of building and scaling multiple digital fashion platforms from multinationals like Nike and PVH Corp. She has worked in Nike in the Digital Enablement team and in PVH Corp. where she was responsible for the global roll-out of the Store of the Future Concept. She has also co-founded an 80K + community in Italy around Yoga, wellbeing and sustainability.

Nicolò Tresoldi has more than 8 years’ experience in Amsterdam and San Francisco. He is the technical expert of Renoon.

Gabriele Trapani has worked at PVH Corp. in the Omnichannel department where he was responsible for creating financial and operational analysis to executive and VP on the company performance. At Renoon he is responsible for the strategic development of the company and our data products.

How is your company financed?

Through friends, family and accelerator.

Why did you start your Renoon? What opportunities did you see?

We started the company because we saw the opportunity to connect consumers with fashion innovation and the new ways to consume fashion (second hand, rent).

 Fashion is entering a new era in which access becomes more important than ownership. We see an opportunity in this shift of consumption in terms of online as key channel, new consumption methods and conscious and value-driven choices from consumers

What problem or problems does Renoon solve?

Conscious consumers have problems when trying to find sustainable options for what they want to wear.

Choice is limited in the single online destinations, time becomes an important concern when searching through alternatives and researching and - no easy way exists to navigate across platforms and consumption methods.

What gives Renoon the competitive edge?

Renoon was born as a data company and we have technology, sustainability expertise and a consumer focus no other startup in the arena has shown until now. For consumers, Renoon becomes a unique tool at the beginning of the shopping journey, where fashion items can be searched or discovered in a new way.

Sustainability and values become a driver, together with style and criteria-as-usual when finding fashion. We are the first platform that utilizes technology to objectively and automatically screen items for their sustainability characteristics.

Who are your customers?

Renoon's early user adopters are women between 25-34 living in The Netherlands, with medium-high purchasing power. They work in multinationals, are freelancers or have a job that fulfills them. They love doing sports or taking care of themselves and fashion is also a way to do that.

Renoon has a B2B business model. Our partners are online websites (mono brand, multi-brand, second hand and rent) that have sustainable sections.

What would you say are the dynamics that have shaped the fashiontech industry?

Sustainability is the trend in the market: "sustainable fashion" searches have tripled in the years between 2016-2019, according to a 2019 McKinsey report, and sustainability driven sales are accounted to be a €12 billion market by 2023. That is because fashion is one of the most polluting industries worldwide, responsible for 10 per cent of humanity's carbon emission.

Clothing production has roughly doubled since 2000, one truck of which gets dumped in a landfill every second. If the fashion sector continues on its current trajectory, that share of the carbon budget could jump to 26 per cent by 2050, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

What does Renoon need in order to grow?

We are currently fundraising and looking for more partners to establish relationships with.

What is your growth strategy?

We plan to expand through various marketing channels. Partners come to us via our PR, events activities or we cold call/email them.

In which markets are you looking at expanding to?

We are launching in the Netherlands in 2020. We envision establishing a footprint in UK in 2021, USA in 2022 and the rest of Europe in 2023.

What are your plans for the coming 12 months?

We are starting our fundraising, after which we will implement our plans of product development, marketing and business development.

www.renoon.com

 

Are you a startup and do you want your profile interview on this website?

Find here how to do that